Why Seven Years?
by CaptainLyssa
Summary: Why did Admiral Janeway chose to come back seven years into Voyager's journey? Probably because we wouldn't have a story if she attempted it any earlier. In this Captain's Prerogative consistent fable, Voyager's excursion turns out to be much shorter. The question we now have to ask ourselves is why?


**AN:** I know it's been done many times before, but this is my take on the Alpha Quadrant reason for sending someone back to save _Voyager_. I hope you enjoy my version of events. It's a one shot that's set in the Captain's Prerogative universe. It is a little darker than most. Call it artistic licence.

 **Part One: Future**

"Dad," the middle-aged blond man hugged his father. Looks alone stated they were not genetically related.

"Go, son," the man who had Cardassian, Bajoran, Trill and Klingon heritage pleaded as he pulled away. Garric was not one for long goodbye's, he'd experienced far too many in his life. Strangely, it was his diversity that kept him alive all these years when many of his age had been taken by the horror and violence still surrounding them. His wife, a Starfleet officer, from a long line of serving men and women, had not fared well in the unrest following the Dominion Wars. Nor had any others with affiliation to that organisation. "Your mother would have been so proud of you!"

"I only wish she were here to see this day," Ed sighed. He remembered very little of the woman, or his blood kin. The Dominion had made sure of that. For his own protection, Garric gave the child he called son his name in place of the one he should have carried.

The half Klingon woman standing beside Garric grunted her displeasure. "If she were here," B'Etha stated in an unforgiving tone, "you would not need to sacrifice yourself."

"Our eldest was put to death," Ed reminded his mate, recalling that terrible day more than a decade in the past, "and our next is to be terminated in three days for following her instincts. This is the only way to save the future."

"I know it," growled the incensed woman. Each and every person involved with 'The Project' had a similar reason for flouting the Dominion's strict rules. Yet only the closest of family were present to see Captain Ed Garric make this journey beyond time and space. "Go with the blessing of Kahless. If you are successful, none of us will be born into this hell."

Nodding his understanding, Ed pivoted on his heal and strode across the concealed flight deck. Between the Human and Klingon resistance, they'd finally found a way to circumnavigate the Jem'Hadar. Climbing into the shuttle, the man didn't look back. Everyone knew he wouldn't be returning, especially if successful. Their future lay in the past, a past that had only recently come to light.

 **Part Two: Journey**

Captain Ed Garric sat in his shuttle, scrutinising every display. It was the same vessel he'd learnt to fly as a child at his mother's knee, before she'd been murdered along with her father and sisters. Considered ancient, and therefore antiquated, the pilot managed to escape Earth's gravity well with little issue. The Jem'Hadar watching from the high orbital station would consider the effort to escape laughable. Even if he made the exosphere, they'd let the ship get a few thousand kilometres from Earth before blowing it up, or capturing the pilot to amusement themselves.

"Your mistake," Ed smiled to himself as he engaged the generator installed in the cargo compartment, "Computer, activate the tachyon pulse and direct it to these spatial and temporal coordinates."

With those words, a temporal rift appeared before the shuttle. Directing the small craft into it, Ed Garric used every trick he'd been taught, along with his innate skills to pilot the small vessel through the eddies and currents of a temporal rift. Exiting on the other side, he knew there wasn't much time before the Jem'Hadar followed.

"Shuttle Bradbury to _Voyager_ ," Ed used the old Federation subspace band to contact the ship on his view screen. Hanging in space, she'd been exactly where the ancient computer stated, five hundred kilometres off the Caretaker's array. "Please recalibrate your deflector to emit an anti-tachyon pulse. You have to seal that rift as soon as possible."

"It's usually considered polite to introduce yourself before you start giving orders," Captain Paris stated with a slight smirk. A puzzled look crossed her face at the image on the screen, before the professional Starfleet officer took over. The man looked familiar and had the air of command about him, yet he wasn't Starfleet, even if he was piloting an old class two shuttle.

"Captain, there is an unidentified vessel approaching through the rift," Tuvok calmly stated from his station.

"That would be a Jem'Hadar ship," Ed offered with a careless shrug of his shoulders. Seated at the helm, he noticed Commander Thomas Paris draw in a sharp breath. _So, our information is correct,_ Captain Garric couldn't take the time to feel vindicated. _If only Commander Paris had returned from his mission in the DMZ, their very existence may never have occurred. The war might never have started, or if it did, have been of short duration._

"With your current weapons," Ed explained tersely, "there is no way you can destroy it."

"Get that rift closed now!" Tom ordered in a tone not to be ignored. Signalling to one of his pilots at a secondary station, he started to stand. "Then I want a tractor beam on that shuttle. Grimes, take the con. Captain, I'm on my way to the docking bay to meet our guest."

"Care to explain yourself, Commander," Captain Paris appeared incensed at her subordinate taking control. Hands on hips, she glared at her helmsman.

"I will, Captain," Tom's expression softened, slightly, "as soon as I know what the hell's going on. Trust me, if it's what I think, we could be in trouble. Tuvok, under no circumstance are you to let that vessel get through the rift."

 **Part Three: Confessions**

"Commander Paris," the blond man, greying at the temples offered his hand the moment he stepped from the shuttle, "Captain Edward Garric Paris of the Earth Résistance."

"I think we have a lot to discuss," Tom stated easily, however his body language became stiff at the sight of the flight suit. The man's attire was old and frayed, he wore no comm badge and although he deported himself as an officer, his personal appearance was disordered. The scenarios going through the Commander's mind weren't pleasant, especially without any Federation insignia.

"More than you could possibly know," the Captain managed a sad smile, understanding the look in his biological parents' eye. Commander Paris was assessing him, the situation and coming to the conclusions required for Ed to complete is mission.

"Are we related?" Tom asked, suddenly seeing the similarity between them. This man looked like a cross between his father, Admiral Owen Paris and an older version of himself.

"This is going to sound impossible, as I'm thirty years your senior," Ed finally managed a full smirk. "I'm your son. I'm not sure Captain Paris has even told you of my existence yet. She left me in stasis when _Voyager_ was ordered to retrieve you. In the current socio-political climate on Earth, I'm unable to use my surname. I'm afraid my grandfather, Admiral Owen Paris, made sure of that when he started the Resistance."

"The rift, it was temporal," Tom managed to put the ideas racing through his head together. "You're from our future. If you're here, then we never got home so, Elizabeth and Garric must have raised you."

It wasn't a question and both men knew it.

"Yes," Edward answered easily. "However, that's not relevant as it will never come to pass."

"The Temporal Prime Directive?" Tom queried which only caused Ed to snort. Before Commander Paris could chastise the man, he recalled what had appeared to be an insignificant piece of information gathered on his mission with the maquis. "The Jem'Hadar invaded through the Gamma quadrant worm hole. Those rumours about a race of shape shifters with an invincible army of genetically cloned humanoids weren't rumours after all."

"If you thought living under Cardassian rule would be bad," Ed commented with a snide smile, "it would have been luxury in comparison to the Dominion. The Jem'Harad are hard masters, who are ruled by masters of their own. The Founders let their minions do all the dirty work. Owen, my eldest was put to death at twenty when he broke his leg. There is no medical assistance for conquered populations."

Scrutinising the man, Tom could see the slightness of his figure under the baggy flight suit. "Food?" he asked.

"Allotted on your usefulness to the Dominion," came the expected answer. "My family have skills that are in demand, we've made sure of it. Garric's Cardassian heritage helped."

"If my wife had extracted me," the Intelligence officer finally concluded, "the Federation would have been prepared. This future you come from wouldn't have occurred."

"Perhaps we would have managed to close the wormhole before the Jem'Hadar came through," Ed offered sadly, "or had some idea of the enemy we were about to face. As it was, they flew in and conquered the Cardassian's, Romulans, Klingons and finally the Federation within a matter of months."

"Come on," Tom indicated the shuttle bay doors, "let's get you fed, before I take you to meet Kate. I'm not sure what my wife is going to make of this. I'm not sure what to think myself."

 **Part Four: Plans**

"You want us to what?" Captain Paris demanded of the man standing opposite her desk in the ready room. Tom had comm'ed her before taking Edward Garric Paris to the mess after first stopping by their quarters to offer the man a sonic shower and new Starfleet uniform. While he'd been cleaning up, Commander Paris reported his findings. She'd been astounded, then saddened and finally angered.

"Fly to the planet containing a people known as the Ocampa. Once there you need to extract Ensign Kim and Maquis Torres while leaving me on the array. After you return, the Caretaker will be ready to send you back to the Alpha quadrant," Captain Edward Paris stated easily, "I hope. This situation is not all that different to the one he placed the Ocampa in all those millennia ago."

"Just how do you think you can convince that entity to send us home?" Kathryn once again challenged.

"Your ship made it home, Captain, but you and most of the original crew did not. Your daughter, Jane, limped the vessel into the Beta quadrant sixty-five years after you left. Luckily the Klingon Resistance were able to get to the ship before the Jem'Hadar. We have scrutinised _Voyager's_ logs for almost three years in preparation for this mission. It's the technology Engineer Torres managed to incorporate that is the basis for our project and its success. In your thirty-second year of the journey home, you came in contact with another being from the Narcen race. I intend to give the Caretaker the details as well as an account of the damage he has done in the Alpha and Beta quadrants by forcing _Voyager_ to be displaced. It should be enough to convince him the deed is worth his effort," Ed responded.

All but falling into her chair, the Captain continued to gaze at the man. Edward Garric Paris was exactly whom he stated, the son Kathryn had placed in stasis only a few short months ago. The EMH had run a scan, dating the individual before her at fifty-nine years of age. Ed didn't seem constrained by the Prime Directive, having grown up under the Dominion. Starfleet, the Federation, and any other Empire ceased to exist under the brutal system brought about by the Founders subjugation.

All of Tom's sisters had given their lives defending Earth from invasion. Several of his nieces and nephews had succumbed as part of the Resistance. Edward met his wife of nearly thirty years while aiding the Klingon Resistance. Of his four children, only one survived, while a second was to be put to death in a few days for crimes against the state. The picture he painted of the future, both for the Federation and _Voyager_ , was bleak and didn't take much imagination to know why the man made the journey back in time.

"What of this technology you've given us?" the Captain hadn't had time to digest even a minuscule amount of the data Edward had brought with him, let alone the fact this man was her son. Commander's Tuvok and Paris were currently wading through the information. "We won't be able to use it if your plan works. It breaks the Prime Directive."

"Why not," Ed asked, slightly confused. "Engineer Torres, Ensign Kim and Commander Paris were responsible for most of the changes. The technology is yours. Besides, I've added a program into Voyager's library," the man locked eyes with the woman who was his biological mother. She was nothing like the woman who'd raised him, yet Edward could see aspects of his personality in this unknown individual. It seemed he looked like his father, but took after his mother in character. "It will activate the moment Starfleet HQ contacts _Voyager_ and is keyed to my father's voice and DNA patterns. Along with the intelligence Commander Paris provides, the Federation will be forced to act if they want to change a very dark future."

"What about you, Captain," Kathryn asked, her eyes finally drinking in the child she never though she's see grow into a man. "If this works, you will never have existed."

"I can only hope," Ed managed to swallow the hope burgeoning in his heart, "I'll have a very different child hood, surrounded by the people who should have raised me. That my three siblings will be born in the Alpha quadrant under Federation principles and given every opportunity to thrive."

"You're saying Tom and I had three children out here?" Kathryn looked to the man incredulously.

"That's a long story, that will never happen," Ed smiled, it was a genuine expression of hope, "if you make it home."

 **Part Five: Maquis**

"You're serious about this," Chakotay asked of the Federation Captain as he paced her ready room. To say the request to beam over surprised the man was an understatement. After returning to the array with Paris, he'd had little hope the entity would aid them in any way. Shortly after transferring back to his ship with Ayala, the Federation shuttle had appeared and everything changed.

"Completely," Kathryn Paris offered, noticing the same suspicions on Chakotay's features that had crossed hers not two hours previously. They still had at least twenty hours of repairs before either ship could attempt the journey to the Ocampan world. In the meantime, Edward Paris hoped to use the time to convince the Caretaker to return their people to the Alpha quadrant.

"We just leave this man on the array to convince the Caretaker to send us home?" the Maquis Captain could keep the irony from his tone.

"What choice do we have?" Kathryn felt like hitting the man. "Either Edward's plan will work and we'll get home, or it won't and we'll be stuck in the Delta quadrant for the next sixty-five years on the same ship."

"What happens if we get back, Captain?" demanded Chakotay, ignoring the second half of Kathryn Paris's ultimatum.

"That depends on you?" Kathryn ground out between clenched teeth. "I've seen enough to believe him. Commander Paris understands the intelligence he uncovered while on your ship is vital to the coming invasion. I have made the decision to work with Edward and attempt to return to Federation space. I can only suggest you do the same."

"Alright," Chakotay agreed. "But once we hit the Badlands, I'm taking _Val Jean_ in the opposite direction."

"Agreed," Kathryn offered her hand. "I believe the Maquis will have a crucial part to play in future events. Will your people believe you, Mr. Chakotay, if you return with this story?"

An ironic smile graced his lips. This would be difficult for anyone in the Alpha quadrant to imagine a race worse than the Cardassian's. The thought of them allying with someone even more brutal, only to be conquered, seemed fitting.

 _Voyager_ and _Val Jean_ decided to commence on their journey towards the Ocampan world while still completing repairs. On the array, Edward Garric Paris met with the Caretaker. The conversation between the pair took place on a bench to one side of the white washed farm house.

"I have scanned your ships data banks and seen the proof of what will befall your people if I do not return them," the elderly man stated. "With the knowledge you have brought to these humanoids, they will extract their people without alerting the Kazon to their presence and the Ocampa will be safe. However, I must insist you stay on the array until one of my kind can come to replace me."

"There is no place for me," Edward's expression turned melancholy, "in the Federation they will return too. My world, my family, is gone."

"Then there is much I must teach you," the elderly man rose, beckoning Edward to follow him.

Above the Ocampan world, careful not to disturb Neelix and his debris on the journey, and even more cautious of encountering the Kazon, Commander Paris beamed into the underground city alone. Extracting Torres and Kim proved easy, even if Tom ended up with a black eye for his trouble. Once B'Elanna was returned to her ship, the vessels attempted to return to the array. They'd cleared the heliopause of the system when a second displacement wave hit. Picking themselves off the floor, Captain Paris ordered the helm to set a course for Deep Space Nine. Chakotay, turned his ship to the Terrakoff belt and a hidden Maquis base on one of the planetoids.

 **Part Six: A New Future**

Six days later, _Voyager_ docked at the outskirts of Federation territory. Commander Paris made his report to the head of Intelligence at the first opportunity, resulting in Captain Sisko awaiting Captain Paris with new orders for her eyes only. _Voyager_ was ordered home will all speed for debrief. At warp nine point five, they made the journey that would normally take a month in eight days.

"Three months," Tom complained to his wife when they were finally allowed to see each other. "I can't believe they've held us incommunicado for all this time. What more could Starfleet want from us. We've told them everything we know."

"I believe the President of the Federation is meeting with the Klingons and Romulans, trying to gather support," Kathryn sighed, understanding the difficulty associated with such negotiations. She'd been intimately involved with the discussions on how to proceed whereas Tom's intelligence expertise had been needed to plan for the coming invasion. "In Edward's timeline, the Dominion war won't start for another five years."

"Which leave us where?" Tom complained. "I tried to resign my commission. I don't want this life anymore. I want to bring up my son. Kate, it's time we became parents."

Smiling, Kathryn noticed the extra pip on her husband's collar. She had news of her own which would give them both what they wanted. "I'm moving into a desk job and Captain Thomas Paris will be reporting to me. Together with Ensign Kim, we'll be heading up Research and Development into closing that wormhole. Which means we can retrieve our child and continue his development. I don't think it's a good idea to carry him."

Using the artificial womb was a small price to pay. Tom found he took to his new position with relish. Even when their son was born, Kate and Tom Paris decided he needed his own identity. They called him Garric Gene Paris, after the man who would have raised him in a different reality. Young Garry and his uncle became the closes of friends, often remaining with Elizabeth and Garric Paris when his parents were required to go off planet. The day Garry turned five, just as the Jem'Hadar armada were about to exit the Gamma quadrant wormhole, the Federation, Klingon and Romulan Empires closed the Alpha quadrant exit, causing the Founders a crippling blow. Continuing on to Cardassia Prime, the Alliance forced the Cardassian's to retreat to their home system.

"Do you ever wonder," Tom asked, watching their three children playing in the pool at his parents' home, along with their Paris cousins, "what would have become of us in another reality?"

"No," Vice-Admiral Kathryn Paris smile while relaxing into her husband's arms. "I'm happy with this one Tom. The Federation is at peace, the Borg are no longer a threat and you've finally become the house husband you wanted to be. I'd say this reality turned out just fine."

"Hey, Dad," Garry called, "you promised to come in."

"A father's job is never done," Tom smirked, releasing his wife. "Duty calls, Admiral."

 _Sometimes_ , Kathryn Paris watched her husband of Nineteen years dive into the crystal-clear water to join their son and two daughters, _I wonder who's the biggest kid._ Without another thought, she followed to join in the frivolity. Tonight, would be soon enough to inform Tom they'd be expecting the final addition to their brood in seven months.


End file.
